Chancellorsville and Gettysburg
The brunt of the Battle of Chancellorsville fell on the XI and XII Corps; and yet amid all the rout and confusion of that disastrous battle the regiments of the XII Corps moved steadily with unbroken fronts, retiring at the close of the battle without the loss of a color, while the corps artillery, after having been engaged in the close fighting at the Chancellor House, withdrew in good order, taking every gun with them. In this campaign Slocum's troops were the first to cross the Rapidan River, and the last to re-cross the Rappahannock River. The corps at this time contained 30 regiments of infantry, with five batteries of light artillery, numbering in all 19,929 present for duty. Its losses at Chancellorsville amounted to 260 killed, 1,436 wounded, and 1,118 missing; total, 2,814. The hardest fighting and heaviest losses fell on the brigades of Brig. Gen. Thomas H. Ruger and Col. Charles Candy. The divisions were commanded by Generals Williams and John W. Geary.
At the Battle of Gettysburg, the XII Corps distinguished itself by its gallant defense of Culp's Hill on July 2–3, 1863. General Slocum was in command of the right wing at Gettysburg, which left Alpheus S. Williams, of the 1st Division, in command of the corps; Thomas H. Ruger of the 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, took Williams's place as commander of the division; Geary commanded the 2nd Division.
On the afternoon of July 2 the corps was ordered by army commander George G. Meade to disengage from Culp's Hill and reinforce the Union line on its extreme left flank, near Little Round Top. Slocum persuaded Meade to leave one brigade behind to hold the critical position: Greene's Brigade, of Geary's Division. While occupying this position on Culp's Hill, with an excessively long line to defend and no other troops in support, Greene was attacked by Edward "Allegheny" Johnson's Division, but the attack was successfully repulsed by his brigade. Greene, a civil engineer, had insisted that his men prepare impressive defensive works on the hill. Still, some of Johnson's troops effected, without opposition, a lodgment in the vacated breastworks of the XII Corps, and upon the return of those troops a desperate battle ensued to drive the Confederates out. After a long, hard fight the corps succeeded in re-occupying its works. On no part of the field did the Confederate dead lie thicker than in front of the XII Corps position. Johnson's Division, containing 22 regiments, lost in this particular action, 229 killed, 1,269 wounded, and 375 missing; total, 1,873. To this must be added the losses suffered in the 14 regiments from the brigades of William Smith, Junius Daniel, and Edward A. O'Neal, which were sent to Johnson's support. The XII Corps, containing 28 regiments, lost 204 killed, 810 wounded, and 67 missing; total, 1,081.
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